Gruesome attack for the fetus

Read this news in today’s The Standard.  In the South China Post, it was mentioned that this woman suffers from mental illness.  Insanity is frequently used as a defence in murders.  This was shocking because of the effort taken to learn how to perform a cesarean and plan the attack and carry it out.  This is premeditated for sure, though not something a normal person would do.

…………………………………………………………………………………

Fetus attack woman facing life in prison

A woman who faked a pregnancy to befriend an expectant mother and then sliced open her new friend’s stomach with a 20-centimeter knife is facing life in jail, a High Court judge said yesterday.

Nickkita Lau

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

A woman who faked a pregnancy to befriend an expectant mother and then sliced open her new friend’s stomach with a 20-centimeter knife is facing life in jail, a High Court judge said yesterday.

The mother survived but the infant died in March this year.

Leung Sin-ting, 27, admits to manslaughter and intent to cause grievous bodily harm. After her arrest she told police she cut open the woman so she could “see what an unborn infant looked like.”

Leung was due to be sentenced yesterday, but judge Darryl Saw said psychiatric reports from both the prosecution and the defense were inadequate. Although they diagnosed her mental illness, they did not specify its severity, the possibility of repeating the offense and how big a threat she could pose to society.

The judge asked for more reports so he could give an appropriate sentence and treatment for Leung. He adjourned sentencing to November 25.

But Saw said there is no doubt Leung will be facing a custodial sentence or even life in prison.

Leung claimed to have been pregnant but had a miscarriage when she met the 26-year-old victim surnamed Lee on the internet. Lee was eight months’ pregnant at the time.

On September 16, 2008, the women met in Fan Ling so Lee could pick up some baby items Leung had promised her. After they arrived at Leung’s home, Leung complained of a stomach ache and Lee tried to comfort her.

When Lee was not looking, Leung used a cable to strangle her until she lost consciousness.

Leung then made a single vertical incision below Lee’s navel with a fruit knife and opened up her abdomen.

When Leung’s husband Chau Man-choi returned home, she hid Lee in a kitchen cabinet but ended up confessing to him.

The baby boy was delivered by an emergency cesarean section but suffered from brain damage due to lack of oxygen.

Police discovered Leung had been looking up information on how to perform a cesarean section, how to make someone fall unconscious and the procedure to get a birth certificate.

 

 

Hospital Blunders

In the past months, there have been many reports of blunders at hospitals.  Some of these blunders were at best, embarrassing for the hospitals and at worst, fatal.  Today’s Standard reported that an investigation was carried out to understand why these blunders occurred.  I’ve highlighted the interesting (but tragic) bits in blue.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

`Military’ nurses behind blunders

A “military” culture among nurses – making quick work of their duties without thinking – is behind a series of “disheartening blunders” that have rocked pulic hospitals.

Mary Ann Benitez

Friday, September 04, 2009

A “military” culture among nurses – making quick work of their duties without thinking – is behind a series of “disheartening blunders” that have rocked pulic hospitals.

The Hospital Authority’s top nursing executive Sylvia Fung Yuk-kuen yesterday blamed errors by experienced registered nurses on critical lapses in attention and described them as mistakes waiting to happen.  She went through three recent high-profile cases and offered explanations in each.

A breast cancer patient who was injected with oral morphine because a nurse thought the syringe containing the solution was to be injected.

The patient died but not due to the morphine injection, preliminary investigations showed.

The nurse was not told that the syringe was being used to give the morphine orally because the woman was too weak to swallow the painkiller. “It was a trap, a mistake waiting to happen. We are looking at buying foolproof oral syringes,” she said.

Expired BCG vaccines injected into five newborns by a nurse was down to the “goodwill” of another staffer who wanted to save money. They kept the unused portion of the prepackaged multidose vaccine in the fridge instead of discarding it within four hours.

A second nurse did not check the preparation dates of the vaccine before immunizing the newborns two days later.

Two newborns whose identity bracelets were switched and whose mothers ended up breast- feeding the wrong babies for five days. Fung says nurses checked the names of the new arrivals on their cribs but not the bracelets.

She said the incidents are still being investigated and any disciplinary action will depend on the individual circumstances involved.

“Nursing training is like military training so nurses tend to be very obedient,” said Fung. She took over as chief manager (nursing)/chief nursing executive nine months ago and manages the 19,559-strong public hospital nursing workforce.

“Now we would like to encourage frontline nurses to voice their opinions on how to make practices safer or whether they are dangerous under the existing guidelines.”  Fung said an overall review of the “whole work processes” is being conducted to improve the administration of drugs to and how patients are identified and avoid future blunders.

The special nursing clinical review will identify the “critical control points” in a bid to reduce errors.

Hong Kong is also looking to adopt overseas nursing practices for administering drugs. These adhere to the “five rights” – right drug, right patient, right timing, right dose, and right method of delivery.

Cheating the poor

Among the many news in The Standard, this one really tugged at me for obvious reasons. Incidentally, i’ve seen the scrap collectors “watering” their pile of scrap paper and initially didn’t understand the reason. That is until a friend explained that it was to increase the weight. 

When I first arrived in HK, I was sad to see elderly people, collecting scrap paper or rummaging through dustbins for tin cans.  And then I was amazed that at their old-er age, they were still healthy and able to carry / push this heavy trolley, laden with all kinds of odds and ends.   I’ve shared my observation with afew local friends and some are visibly embarrassed at this negative perception of HK.  While some were emphathetic that this is an unfortunate “by-product” of cosmopolitan HK, where its high cost of living has required that some elderly people would need to support themselves, through any means possible.   Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see anything wrong in collecting scraps… it’s an honest living.  What I am sad about, is that at their old-er age, these popos (Grandmas) and kungkung (Grandpas) should be spending their retirement, relaxing and not having many cares / worries. 

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 

Clampdown on scrap paper cheats

Unscrupulous scrap paper dealers are using faulty scales to cheat scavengers – mostly women and the elderly – out of the little money they make.

Beatrice SiuThursday, May 07, 2009

Unscrupulous scrap paper dealers are using faulty scales to cheat scavengers – mostly women and the elderly – out of the little money they make.  Customs officers, who uncovered the scam, have begun a clampdown on the cheats.  In recent weeks, six people have been fined sums ranging from HK$2,000 to HK$5,000, while 10 more cases are being processed.

The Society for Community Organization’s Sze Lai-shan accused the scrap dealers of being “heartless” as most of the scavengers were women or the elderly, trying hard make a little extra money to support their families or pay medical expenses.

From late 2008 to last month, officers of the Customs and Excise Department made surprise checks at scrap shops in Kwun Tong, Ngau Tau Kok, North Point and Kwai Chung and found several scales had been manipulated to under-weigh scrap paper by 10 to 38 percent, according to the department’s Consumer Protection Bureau deputy chief Wong Yiu-cheung.  Wong said the defective equipment had been seized after verification, in addition to the fines.  Customs received 168 complaints since 2007, with 14 cases successfully prosecuted.

A source familiar with the recycling sector said cheating is common, with at least 60 to 70 percent of the traders being involved in the practice.  One reason for this was the reduced demand for recycled paper, prompting traders to begin underweighing to make up the shortfall, the source said.  Some of the sellers were also to blame as they sprayed water on the scrap paper to increase the weight, the source added.  Wong reiterated that traders should not use fraudulent scales as it was against the law.  He suggested they could, instead, refuse to buy scrap paper from sellers they suspect were trying to cheat them. He said Customs had stepped up spot checks and would continue to take stringent enforcement action against errant traders.

Under the ordinance, any person who possesses, manufactures, supplies or uses false or defective weighing or measuring equipment for trade can be fined up to HK$20,000 and be imprisoned for six months.

Yeung Shun-kwai, 76, said she began trading in scrap paper after her husband died three years ago. She now earns about HK$20 a day compared with around HK$80 a day last year, since the price of scrap paper has fallen to just 50 cents a kilogram.

“Barfly mom gets two years after baby dies”

I read this in The Standard, this morning and it’s news like this that make me sad :

Nickkita Lau

Friday, March 13, 2009

A woman who a judge said treated her four daughters worse than pets was jailed for two years yesterday.  Her estranged husband, a sewage worker, was given one year and 10 months.

Man Ching-yee, 29, and Lin Ka-shing, 31, had pleaded guilty to four counts of ill-treatment and neglect after the youngest of their four daughters – aged just three months – died of infant death syndrome in 2007.

The court had been told that prior to the girl’s death, the children had been looked after by the oldest daughter, then aged eight.  She had to cook and feed her younger siblings. The four girls were often at home alone. Even when the couple was at home, they did not feed the infant, help the girls change or give them clean clothes to wear.   At the time of the youngest girl’s death, the mother was at a bar with friends while the father was asleep.

In passing sentence, District Court judge Joseph Yau Chi-lap said he could not accept the defense’s contention the mother had less than average intelligence.   “I don’t believe her intelligence could be lower than her eight-year-old daughter,” Yau said.   Yau said the couple was irresponsible for having four girls regardless of their economic situation or their abilities to take care of them.

He said he accepted the death of the infant was not the direct result of child abuse. Nevertheless, the care the infant received prior to her death must have been a very bad experience for her.   He said the greater responsibility in this case lay with the mother, hence the two-year term, compared with one year and 10 months for the father.  The couple filed for divorce after the death of the child.

Neighbors complained to social workers about the children being left alone at home as far back as 2006.

On one occasion a social worker found the diaper of one of the daughters, 10 months old at the time, to be completely soaked and no food nor clean water at home. The eldest and the second youngest daughters were then being looked after by relatives, but the eldest returned after Man gave birth to the fourth daughter.

The three girls are now under the care of their grandmother and an institution. 

Fake Eggs has reached Macau!

I must have talked about this fake egg business to many of you but never paid much attention because it was confined to China.  Well, it has reached Macau, according to last Friday’s local HK papers.   There were several complaints from residents on potentially fake egg.  The article was meant to be serious but this sentence tickled me “.. a local person bought some from a street vendor and found the yolks could bounce after being cooked.”   A couple of people have since come out to clarify that real eggs can bounce too… I wonder - why all the interest in whether eggs can bounce, is that the only way to judge whether it’s real?

Yikes, will it reach HK?  Do I have to stop eating eggs too?

Here’s the update from The Standard (today’s news):

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Bouncy eggs given the all-clear

Bonnie ChenTuesday, February 24, 2009

Macau food safety officials have spent time bouncing eggs and declared them the genuine article. 

Fake eggs have been in the news for about a week after a man in Fujian province found eggs he had bought in a market were bouncy after being cooked. The realistic-looking fakes do not contain protein and the “yolks” are dyed with tartrazine. The shells are made of calcium carbonate.

They also contained chemicals including alum. Long-term consumption of aluminum, an element in alum, is believed to cause mental retardation.

The fake eggs cost just 1 HK cents to 5 cents to make, compared with 25 cents to 30 cents for the real thing. A Macau food safety panel yesterday said laboratory tests found that 20 bouncing eggs from Hubei did not contain the chemicals present in the fakes found in the mainland.

It said the egg whites and yolks were normal and that the eggs were 15 percent protein. The panel believed the egg yolks expanded and became bouncy because of a physical change as they were stored at below-zero temperatures so that when shaken the egg whites would penetrate the yolks.

An official said that some of the eggs had gone bad while fake eggs made of inorganic matter would not.

The officials said that so far they have received no reports of anyone getting sick after eating the bouncing eggs.

Meanwhile, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department in Hong Kong said it is still following up four fake egg complaints.

The department said it could not confirm whether there are fake eggs on sale in Hong Kong.

Because of the fake eggs saga more stores have been selling eggs imported from further afield that are far more expensive than mainland eggs.

Outlook bleak with layoffs and pay freezes on cards

I guess I shouldn’t be wishing for bonus or increment next year… sigh

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

News courtesy of The Standard, HK’s free english newspaper.

 

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Hong Kong Baptist University and the Hong Kong People Management Association interviewed 45 companies between October 13 and 17 to find out their future plans.

Two in every five companies have decided to scale down pay hikes in the wake of the economic downturn, while nearly one in 10 has or is planning to lay off staff, a survey shows.

About 40 percent, or 19 companies, said they will scale down pay rises while eight companies (17.8 percent) said they will wait and see. Four (9 percent) said they were under pressure to lay off staff.

Another survey conducted between July and September interviewed 83 companies – comprising 55,440 workers – about their employment status between July 2007 and June this year. About a quarter said they sacked a total of 1,293 employees during the year.

The largest layoffs came in the electronics and electrical sector, in which 461 staff (35.7 percent) were laid off. This was followed by the property management sector with 353 staff losing their jobs.

However, the same survey forecast next year’s pay rise will be between 4.8 and 5 percent compared with 4.5 percent this year.

A survey of 95 operating units in China involving 168,801 staff was a clearer indication of the times.

Those contacted in July indicated pay rises for next year would be higher than this year but in a second survey in October, 22 of the 57 companies that responded said they intended to scale down rises and 10 said they were under pressure to cut staff.

Management association vice president Pauline Chung Hei-ching said the situation could deteriorate further though the impact of the financial tsunami is still not clear. She said there were also fears that legislation on a minimum wage could negatively affect the employment market.

Crow tests positive for bird flu

Got this from today’s The Standard, HK’s free english newspaper.  The place mentioned-Sham Shui Po- is quite near to my place… about 3 MTR stations away.  Should I start worrying? 

—————————————————————————————————————–
A house crow found dead in Hong Kong has tested positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, an agricultural official said.

The crow was found dead in the refuse area of a park in the Sham Shui Po district on October 15 and tests showed it was carrying the virus, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department spokesman said.

Hong Kong was the location of the world’s first outbreak of bird flu in humans, which hit the city in 1997, leaving six people dead.

Migratory birds have been blamed for the global spread of the disease, which has killed more than 240 people and ravaged poultry flocks worldwide since 2003.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE   

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?id=8193&icid=3&d_str=20081020

Thinking of grumbling? Better think twice

Another bit of interesting news I got from The Standard – HK’s free english newspaper. 

Chopped for grumbling

There are actually 2 stories in the article, although the header is the more interesting one.  The first story is about a woman who asked the chef to stay back and prepare a snack for her, at 430am.  Only to grumble that the snack wasnt up to standard.  So what was the chef to do???

2nd story is about 2 men, sharing tables (its quite common in HK, to “tap-toi”/share tables), ordered the same dish but one was served before the other.  Then all hell broke loose because of that and these two 70+ year-old, threw teapots at each other.  Wahhh…. dont mess with 70 yo uncles.  Respect!

why i’m so paranoid of food in HK…

Got this from The Standard-HK’s free english newspaper.

Hong Kong cake tainted with melamine (09-23, 2008 19:05) Authorities say the industrial chemical melamine has been found in a locally sold cake.The government said in a statement the substance was found in the Four Seas brand of strawberry flavored cake. Four Seas is a Hong Kong company. Government tests also found melamine in Chinese-made White Rabbit candies. Singapore food regulators also detected the chemical in the same sweets. Baby formula tainted with melamine has sickened nearly 53,000 Chinese infants and killed four. ASSOCIATED PRESS